Pepper Rasam Made Right!

​Essentially,  Rasam is a South Indian tamarind soup. One of the comfort foods for many South Indians when recovering from a cold because of its strong sour tangy flavour which really hits the spot. Recently, I found out that its a great hangover cure too!  There are many varieties of rasam out there but the pepper tomato rasam is an all time favourite in my household. Did you know that the Mulligatwany Soup which you see in the menus of famous Indian Restaurants actually refers to Pepper Rasam?

History of Mulligatwany Soup
Mulligatawny soup is a Sri Lankan recipe passed over to Tamil Nadu during the British Raj. The word Mulligatawny comes from the Tamil language. It is an amalgamation of ‘milagu’ (pepper) and ‘thanni’ (water), known as ‘pepper water’. During the British Raj, between 1858 and 1947, the British soldiers stubbornly refused to alter their way of dinning, requiring a soup at the start of the meal.
The problem was soup was not a common dish in India. The Tamil servants watered down the ‘pepper water’ stew they had at home in Sri Lanka. The British eventually asked them to add mutton, chicken and other ingredients to suit their taste and this is how the many variations of Mulligatawny began.
My mom makes the basic Pepper Rasam just right with the garlic and whole peppercorns pounded together with cumin seeds. Her recipe is passed down through generations in India. Pair this delicious Rasam with a simple dal vegetable dish, spicy potatoes and Pappadams and you will have a nutritious satisfying meal. Perfect comfort food! Are you drooling, already? :))

Ingredients  (for 4 )
2 medium tomatoes or 1 large tomato cut into large pieces
4 cups of water
1 tsp peppercorns
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 large garlic cloves
2 stalks coriander leaves
3 tbsps tamarind water
Salt

For tempering
1 stalk of curry leaves
2 dried chillies
2 tsps dried curry vadagam (See note below) 
 
Method

1. Cut the tomatoes into large 8 pieces and boil with 4 cups of water in a small saucepot for 10 mins. Let it cool, remove the skin and mash with the water in the pot. Set aside.
2. Pound the peppercorns, cumin seeds and garlic till you get a roughly fine paste. You can leave it not so fine as well. Gather all the ingredients - from bottom left pounded pepper corn mix, curry leaves, dried red chillies and coriander leaves.  Bottom pic - tamarind water and curry vadagam.

3) Mix the peppercorn garlic mix, coriander leaves, tamarind water, salt  in the pot with the mashed tomatoes. Then heat oil and fry the curry leaves, dried chillies and curry vadagam and pour this tempering mix into the tomato mix in the pot. 

4) Let the mix boil once and switch off fire. do not stir too much when boiling.

What is Curry Vadagam?
It is a dried or dehydrated mix of condiments (see above pic) to add flavour when tempering many South Indian vegetarian dishes. It’s made of the following :
Curry leaves sliced 
Small onion sliced 
Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds
Urad dal
Turmeric powder
Salt 
All mixed and dehydrated to remove all moisture. Pack in an airtight container and store it in fridge. Will last for months. 

Mustard seeds and curry leaves can be substituted for this curry vadagam.